I’ve grown extremely unpredictable, I’m not sure if I’ll continue with my life or if I’ll give up… but I thought I’ll draft this for all those who are dealing with the same issues. My mother didn’t notice any fungus but I found it (although I don’t keep well & it’s hard for me to get out of the bed) there’s a lot of mold & mildew behind the wallpapers, even behind one of NGC’s papers… so I guess I know what went wrong here. There is no mold growth on the other NGC wall or the window wall where we have the same wallpaper which was fixed by another guy. Firstly, Marshalls & NGC both have extremely unprofessional people working for them (when the four workers arrived, they all knew each other) NGC’s service is great, they are very helpful and knowledgeable but they hire people from outside and those people are very rough and imbecilic, they do ask you to prep the walls before starting with the wallpaper application but they don’t do proper wall levelling or primer, secondly, all these wallpaper stores/dealers they’ll nag you for Leakages but they never talk about dampness… because in India, it’s very common and they just want to sell their papers, if they’ll do that people won’t be able to give an astounding yes. In poorer, developing countries, like India real estate prices shoot up more than the GDP, they will always trend above that & outreach our purchasing power, to be precise, they quote extremely unrealistic rates (all those overrated overhyped property prices should fall in a downward trend) and even after taking so much money maximum builders cheat us with low quality material, the soil that they use is always porous which leads to dampness… some areas can also face seasonal mildew, especially those which are located in humid subtropical regions. We will do waterproofing just to make sure the walls aren’t damp (there’s no internal piping anywhere so there can’t be any leakages on our RCC walls, we just want to avoid “rising damp” near the skirting especially on the bathroom side ie. if there is any dampness) and although they claim they have 10 years warranty for Berger (8, for Asian Paints) in waterproofing, we were literally told by the Berger rep that there is zero guarantee/warranty… we asked him, then why does it say “10 years” on your website & all we heard was, “That’s how it is. There is no actual warranty.” Luckily I had already come up with a solution - that is before getting in touch with Berger because I knew I couldn’t solely rely on waterproofing, nowadays they cheat a lot everywhere.
Keeping dampness aside, here is the actual issue: Faulty Application process. I spoke to someone from a well known reputed store (in Lower Parel, NOT NGC) and just so you know they don’t have any impressive, positive reviews either and their catalogues had loads of fungus and black mold so as guessed they were already lacking credibility.
I was told “Mam if we’ll think so much how are we going to put wallpapers?” thats right, I’m supposed to do all the thinking ‘cuz you are not paying 12000/- per roll + GST
It seems like none of these “WALLPAPER” dealers/companies/stores in INDIA have any experience or common sense when it comes to the simple analogy between “Papyrus” as in Paper & Moisture. They all hire cheap people, who have no manners, no tact, no diligence, nothing, they don’t even know the basics, they literally walk over your papers and crumple them, my father’s friend who’s also into wallpapers, blinds etc. told him something on day one, as soon as the stains started surfacing he immediately said, “The problem with Marshalls is… they apply a lot of glue, they literally drench the wallpapers with excess glue and all these problems arise because of that.”
The reason why there’s no fungus on the window or other wall is because of this:
First of all they schedule your wallpaper application within 24 hours of applying the primer - while the primer is still wet. Secondly, ALL NON WOVEN wallpapers are strictly HUNG DRY, which means you have to apply the glue (that too a mildew resistant glue) directly to the wall using a roller NOT to the wallpaper, they were so lazy they sat in my room & applied tons of diluted water based glue to the wallpaper itself… simply cuz they were too lethargic to stand & use the roller. The wallpaper must’ve developed fungus on day one itself. Their worker “Kalim” told us, “If something will go wrong Marshalls is giving you a warranty na…” he just flaked on it by taking advantage of their useless policy, Marshalls NEVER compensated for all the mess that they created in our newly renovated room, we had assembled brand new WHITE furniture & now shifting it won’t be easy, forget filing a lawsuit, we know where to complain about them.
Third - they had sealed the wallpapers on all edges (near the skirting) with the help of a thick quick dry adhesive paste, as opposed to that the other guy who came for the window area was only carrying the “water based” glue and he’d used a very meagre amount so whatever was left behind the papers came dripping down all the way to the skirting, which means the excess glue never incubated inside, now imagine… if even a tad bit of condensation or steam build up can lead to mold growth behind the wallpaper that too after penetrating externally, then why can’t their diluted glue which is nothing but “baltoline powder + WATER” mixture (the consistency is so runny & thin) that too in so much quantity cause unwanted moisture and mold? On top of that they literally use wet sponge (which is again heavily soaked in water) to wipe the papers several times + it was hard for me to peel it from the corners cuz that adhesive paste was much more strong, after that the whole wallpaper came off very easily, it didn’t tear at all because it was NEVER stuck, I was able to peel it clean even after 6-8 weeks ‘cuz their water glue was so wet, it never dried up… the glue came dripping down all the way to the skirting area and since the papers were glued tightly at the edges, it kept incubating inside and turned into fungus - due to excessive moisture which pooled near the skirting area (where there was NO sign of any dampness before) even NGC workers created the same mess, when we complained about too much glue, they wiped off all the excess paste from one wall and now there’s no sign of any fungus there! The other guy who came for the window section had also used less glue so although the initial Marshalls paper had already developed fungus on that same wall (it was applied by other workers - from Marshalls) the latter had no trace of it because like I said he didn’t use that much glue and whatever was extra, came out on the skirting cuz the paper was not sealed from there. It’s well stuck, you don’t need lots of glue to keep these papers in place, the paper was also quick to dry so it didn’t facilitate any fungal growth, whereas on the other wall this same paper has developed a lil bit of fungus near the skirting area (it’s not my bathroom wall & there was never any dampness in that part) even over there, the gluewater came running down all the way from the top and turned into mold… luckily that paper didn’t peel off cuz it’s stuck from all other sides, had there been any actual dampness, it would’ve come off, it was only due to excess glue…
I’ll like to say a few things:
Glues should be antibacterial & non-fungal. All runny diluted water based glues should be banned, this silly formula of baltoline powder + water is never going to work with wallpapers
Thirdly, one should wait for at least for 3-5 days after applying the primer so that it’s completely dry before starting off with the application process.
Last but not the least they can’t flake on waterproofing, those solutions have to work if we are paying them. And yeah the application process also matters a lot, you can’t keep running a wet sponge all over the paper or using excess glue/“gluewater” wallpapers are nothing but paper, you can’t trap moisture inside claiming “bubbles are healthy” They think it paper will not stick, if they’ll use less glue but I’ll tell you what, applying too much glue can easily weigh it down and it’ll either fall off or develop fungus, the glue never dries up even if you avoid AC.
Coming to my solution, I had already thought about this before contacting Berger or Asian Paints… the concept was a bit new (for me) I mean it was easy to come up with that but I knew executing it won’t be very smooth especially over here in India, so I did a lil’ research, I googled all the pros & cons, raw materials, hardware shops etc. but you can’t rely on google or home decor mags/articles cuz most of them are very misleading, they are blindly copy pasted from here & there…
I’m gonna get wainscot panelling done, it is usually upto 3-4 ft ie. 1/4 of the total wall but I think 2 ft would be enough for my room because my ceiling height is pretty low… You do get a lot of options in India when it comes to wall panelling but most of them are only used as an upgrade to increase the overall aesthetic appeal of your rooms or give you accent walls, they are not supposed to tackle dampness or mildew. For instance, when people want that classic “Hampton’s look”, they opt for Board & Batten style and for that you need wooden strips which are neither hypoallergenic nor water résistent, it can also lead to termites, next MDF or plywood - you can use moisture resistant MDF trims to create that beautiful Victorian framework ie. if it’s available but it will not bar all the moisture & dampness in your walls, when it comes to PVC panellings, almost 90% of the local results (in India) say they are not only affordable but also termite/dust resistant and they are the best solution for mildew and dampness… but in reality, over here no one, not even all those high end flat panel brands sell actual PVC panellings (not for wainscot) you don’t get those DIY kits, they literally sell Carton/Cardboard pieces with white paper stickers and claim it’s PVC, it only has a thin PVC sheet inside the “carton”, its not 100% PVC although it has to be made entirely out of Plastic or else it won’t fix the dampness issue… it’s definitely not worth 8-15k, it’s basically just carton and paper, that too they use such low grade paper that you can literally see the brown cardboard (futta) from down and it keeps peeling off. They use attractive images from google and conveniently sell this “futta” which is worse than foam stickers, you do get those proper PVC chunks & kits in all other countries…
Shiplap & Grooves (using foam or PVC) would’ve completely covered all the damp areas but again even DIY foam sheets are not easily available here.
So this is what I’ve decided, I’m gonna use a thin sheet of bison board (cement sheet) + waterproof Gypsum Board all wrap round, then add a moulded POP border to create a mount board over my flat skirting and I’ll be putting another fancy POP border above the Gypsum board (I’ll be covering the sheet with POP & White paint) the reason why I want a pretty border there is because I don’t want my panelling to look simple or boring and I’m not sure if the POP guy would be able to carve those Victorian style niches & squares, it was a common practise during the Victorian era lol but now most people opt for shaker style panellings cuz they are comparatively easier. So let’s say if I’ll have to keep it plain cuz I can’t add another layer of wooden strips on top of my board… at least I’ll have a fancy looking border, I’ll get something with carvings and all. I won’t have to worry about any kind of dampness for another 10 years, I can keep revarnishing the board and even solid colours or simple paint will look much more sophisticated above this wainscot panelling, any kind of wallpaper especially the one which I have taken in Mint Green buffalo plaid will look very beautiful with that white border. I found another wallpaper store, he has a good collection of papers and they don’t take 100% advance phew 😮💨 they don’t have a warehouse so they source everything directly from importers and it hardly takes 3-5 days for the rolls to arrive… I will take the rest of my wallpapers later on, first I’ll be getting the panelling done so wish me luck✨ Update: We checked the dampness using a professional meter (the Berger rep has come) & the walls are mostly dry, only the paper and glue is wet! There is fungus even on dry walls where there is no moisture inside.
The bathroom has matte tiles and it’s so dry, I have kept a pouffé there… none of the fittings are on the “affected” walls, there is no internal piping or moisture, no outlet on that side, there are thick tiles on the walls inside the bathroom, I have a bathtub so water doesn’t get collected on the floor and I have maintained a completely neat & dry bathroom, it almost looks like another room.
Xoxo
Zara Sauleh
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